2006 NFL season

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2006 National Football League season
Regular season
Duration	September 7, 2006 - December 31, 2006
Playoffs
Start date	January 6, 2007
AFC Champions	Indianapolis Colts
NFC Champions	Chicago Bears
Super Bowl XLI
Date	February 4, 2007
Site	Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida
Champions	Indianapolis Colts
Pro Bowl
Date	February 10, 2007
National Football League seasons  < 2005 2007 >

The 2006 season of the National Football League (NFL) was the 87th one played by the major professional American football league in the United States. Regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31, 2006. The NFL title was eventually won by the Indianapolis Colts when they defeated the Chicago Bears; the Super Bowl championship game, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on February 4.

Contents 1 Schedule 1.1 Flexible-scheduling 1.1.1 Sunday Night Football 2 Final regular season standings 3 Playoffs 3.1 AFC 3.2 NFC 3.3 Super Bowl 3.4 Pro Bowl 4 Television 4.1 The Pre-Game News 4.2 Prime time changes 4.2.1 ESPN 4.2.2 NBC 4.2.3 NFL Network 5 News and notes 5.1 Major rule changes 5.2 Officials' uniform makeover 5.3 New NFL commissioner 5.4 Return of "The Duke" football 5.5 Unprecedented sell-outs 5.6 Saints go home 5.7 Game highlights on iTunes 5.8 Death of Lamar Hunt 5.9 Death of two Broncos 6 Milestones 7 Regular season statistical leaders 7.1 Team 7.2 Individual 8 Awards 9 Officials 10 References

[edit] Schedule

This was the fifth year that the NFL regular season began with a Thursday night kickoff game (the Pittsburgh Steelers scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to win 28-17 over the Miami Dolphins).

The regular season week one continued on Sunday, September 10, concluded with the Indianapolis Colts at the New York Giants in what was the first NFL game with two brothers starting at quarterback: Peyton Manning of the Colts and his brother Eli of the Giants.

Then on Monday Night, September 11, there was a doubleheader: the Minnesota Vikings defeating the Washington Redskins, 19-16, which was followed by the San Diego Chargers shutting out the Oakland Raiders, 27-0.

There were only seven bye weeks in 2006 (weeks 3-9). Six teams had open dates in weeks 6 and 7, while four teams had open dates the remaining bye weeks. Previously, there were eight bye weeks (weeks 3-10), with four teams having an open date each week.

Three games were played on Thanksgiving Day. In addition to the traditional annual Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys home games during that day, with the Lions losing to the Miami Dolphins 27-10, and the Cowboys handily trouncing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 38-10, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Denver Broncos, 19-10, exactly 37 years since their last meeting on Thanksgiving Day in the AFL.

Based on the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups for 2006 were:

The season formally concluded with the Pro Bowl, the league's all-star game, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 10. It was held on a Saturday instead of the usual Sunday after the Super Bowl because of a request by CBS, on which the game was broadcast.^[1]

[edit] Flexible-scheduling

For more details on this topic, see NFL_on_television#Flexible-scheduling.

For the first time, a "flexible-scheduling" system was used for the last seven weeks of the regular season. This allows the league the flexibility in selecting games to air on Sunday night, in order to feature the current hottest, streaking teams. The system's primary purpose is to prevent games featuring losing teams from airing during primetime late in the season, while at the same time allowing surprise, playoff-potential teams a chance to play at night. During the previous season, a December 19 Monday Night game featured the 4-9 Baltimore Ravens versus the 3-10 Green Bay Packers, while hot, streaking teams such as the Cincinnati Bengals and the Jacksonville Jaguars had few or no primetime games.

Because Christmas Eve (December 24) fell on a Sunday during the 2006 season, the flexible-scheduling actually occurred in seven of the last eight weeks. Instead of a Sunday night game on Christmas Eve, two games were held on Monday, Christmas Day (December 25): The Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys at 5 p.m. ET, and the New York Jets at Miami Dolphins at 8:30 p.m. ET. Therefore, the first real test of the new flexible scheduling will come with the 2007 season, with the final seven weeks scheduled to begin on November 18 of that year. For the first use of the new scheduling, it was announced on October 24 that the game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants would air on NBC on November 12 at 8:15 p.m. EST, and FOX moved the New Orleans Saints-Pittsburgh Steelers game to 4:15 p.m. EST from 1 p.m. EST.

Under the flexible-scheduling system, all Sunday games in the affected weeks tentatively had the start times of 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, except those played in the Pacific or Mountain time zones, which will have a tentative start time of 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT (or 4:15 p.m. ET/1:15 p.m. PT if it is a doubleheader weekend). On the Tuesday 12 days before the games, the league moved one game to the primetime slot, and possibly one or more 1 p.m. slotted games to the 4 p.m. slots. During the last week of the season, the league could re-schedule games as late as six days before the contests so that all of the television networks will be able to broadcast a game that has playoff implications. Furthermore, both FOX and CBS will broadcast doubleheaders in that final week, except in the home markets excluding those of the participating teams in the Sunday Night game that week.

[edit] Sunday Night Football

NBC’s Sunday Night Football will encompass more than four hours of NFL coverage. The agreement continues through the 2011 season and calls for 16 regular-season Sunday night games, each season's "NFL Kickoff" Thursday night primetime game, two postseason wild card games and three preseason games in primetime, in addition to Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 and Super Bowl XLVI in 2012 and Pro Bowls in the same years.

[edit] Final regular season standings

Qualified for playoffs

W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT = Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against

Tiebreakers

Source: 2007 NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 978-1933821856)

• ^{^  a}  a: Cincinnati finished ahead of Pittsburgh in the AFC North based on division record (4-2 to 3-3).
• ^{^  a}  b: Tennessee finished ahead of Jacksonville in the AFC South based on division record (4-2 to 2-4).
• ^{^  a}  c: Kansas City finished ahead of Denver in the AFC West based on division record (4-2 to 3-3).
• ^{^  a}  d: Indianapolis clinched the AFC #3 seed based on their head-to-head victory over New England (Week 9).
• ^{^  a}  e: New Orleans clinched the NFC #2 seed based on their head-to-head victory over Philadelphia (Week 6).
• ^{^  a}  f: Carolina and St. Louis did not qualify because the N.Y. Giants and Green Bay had a better conference record (7-5 to 6-6).
• ^{^  a}  g: N.Y. Giants clinched the NFC #6 seed based on better strength of victory than Green Bay (.422 to .383).

[edit] Playoffs

Further information: NFL playoffs, 2006-07

Playoff seeds
Seed	AFC	NFC
1	San Diego Chargers (West winner)	Chicago Bears (North winner)
2	Baltimore Ravens (North winner)	New Orleans Saints (South winner)
3	Indianapolis Colts (South winner)	Philadelphia Eagles (East winner)
4	New England Patriots (East winner)	Seattle Seahawks (West winner)
5	New York Jets	Dallas Cowboys
6	Kansas City Chiefs	New York Giants

Home team in capitals

[edit] AFC

• Wild-Card playoffs: INDIANAPOLIS 23, Kansas City 8; NEW ENGLAND 37, N. Y. Jets 16
• Divisional playoffs: Indianapolis 15, BALTIMORE 6; New England 24, SAN DIEGO 21
• AFC Championship: INDIANAPOLIS 38, New England 34

[edit] NFC

• Wild-Card playoffs: SEATTLE 21, Dallas 20; PHILADELPHIA 23, N. Y. Giants 20
• Divisional playoffs: NEW ORLEANS 27, Philadelphia 24; CHICAGO 27, Seattle 24 (OT)
• NFC Championship: CHICAGO 39, New Orleans 14

[edit] Super Bowl

• Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida:
  Indianapolis (AFC) 29, Chicago (NFC) 17

[edit] Pro Bowl

• 2007 Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii: AFC 31, NFC 28

[edit] Television

Further information: NFL on Television

The 2006 season marked the first year of the league's new television contracts. CBS and FOX continued to televise Sunday afternoon games with six-year agreements, as well as their respective conference playoffs.

[edit] The Pre-Game News

CBS made the biggest pre-game show news of all during the off-season, as they lured away James Brown from FOX NFL Sunday to The NFL Today, with Brown citing that he wanted to be closer to his home of Washington, D.C., as The NFL Today is based in New York City. Previous host Greg Gumbel was moved to the #2 team with Dan Dierdorf, and his predecessor, Dick Enberg, was paired with Randy Cross. The Eye network also announced it would continue to air only three games per week in high-definition during the season as well as eliminating sideline reporters after losing two reporters, Bonnie Bernstein (who moved to ESPN) and Armen Keteyian (who moved to CBS News as an investigative reporter).

Meanwhile, Joe Buck took over as host of FOX NFL Sunday, while simultaneously continuing as the network's top play-by-play man. This meant the pregame show would go on location from whichever game Buck was scheduled to call. The only weeks when the show wasn't on location were when Buck was assigned to do Major League Baseball postseason broadcasts, and the last two weeks of the season, when he and studio crew did the show from Fox Studios in Los Angeles. Curt Menefee manned the NFL Sunday crew while Buck was calling the week's game, during the baseball post season as well as during the first two rounds of the NFC Playoffs. In addition, Chris Rose, host of Fox Sports Net's Best Damn Sports Show Period, took over providing updates on games in progress during the regular season.

This was also the first season Fox and CBS were allowed to show in-game updates on games on each other's network throughout the season. Previously, they pooled together their highlights only during the final week of the season, when playoff spots were at stake.

[edit] Prime time changes

[edit] ESPN

ESPN took over Monday Night Football from ABC. The cable network's coverage (except for the first week doubleheader and Christmas Day) started at 3 p.m. US ET with a new SportsCenter Monday Night Kickoff Edition, followed by Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. A new version of NFL PrimeTime, hosted by Stuart Scott with Ron Jaworski and Mike Ditka followed. Afterwards, the Monday Night Countdown 90-minute pre-game show, hosted by Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, Michael Irvin, and Steve Young. The latter shows are done on-site. The game broadcast then started at 8:30 p.m. Mike Tirico called the play-by-play, and Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser served as the color commentators. Michele Tafoya came over from ABC's version of MNF while Suzy Kolber arrived from ESPN Sunday Night Football to serve as sideline reporters.

[edit] NBC

NBC returned to the NFL for the first time since televising Super Bowl XXXII at the end of the 1997 season, broadcasting Sunday night games. The series was rebranded as NBC Sunday Night Football and it also telecast the annual Thursday opening "kickoff" game. As the broadcaster of Sunday night games, NBC became the network that took full advantage of the flexible-scheduling system. The network also televised the Christmas Day contest between Philadelphia and Dallas in lieu of a Christmas Eve night game.

Bob Costas hosts the pregame show called Football Night in America, with Cris Collinsworth as his co-host. Currently, they serve as co-hosts of HBO's Inside the NFL, and continued to serve in their present posts. In addition, NBC announced on February 19 that the recently retired Jerome "The Bus" Bettis will join Costas and Collinsworth in the studio. ^[2] Sterling Sharpe also appeared on the program, after serving as a studio commentator on ESPN and then NFL Network.

Play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and color commentator John Madden were signed to call the games from ABC Monday Night Football, while Andrea Kremer came from ESPN to serve as the sideline reporter, and also contributed to the studio show. ^[2]

The pregame program aired at 7 p.m. ET and the game coverage followed at 8:15 p.m. Pink sings the show's theme, a remake of the Joan Jett song "I Hate Myself For Loving You" retitled "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night." Composer John Williams also contributed instrumental music for the pre-game show and the game telecast. The exceptions were on October 22 due to Game 2 of the 2006 World Series, and on December 24 (Christmas Eve), when no Sunday night games were scheduled to be telecast. On those nights, Football Night in America was a one hour stand-alone telecast, while a condensed half-hour version aired on Christmas Day.

In addition, as part of the network's contract, The Peacock Network broadcast the first two wild-card games on January 6, 2007, at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tom Hammond, Collinsworth and Bob Neumeier called the early contest (Kansas City at Indianapolis), while the Sunday Night team of Michaels, Madden and Kremer called the late game (Dallas at Seattle).

[edit] NFL Network

The NFL Network specialty channel broadcast eight primetime games from Thanksgiving to the end of the regular season on Thursday and Saturday nights. ^[3]

Bryant Gumbel was the play-by-play announcer and Cris Collinsworth served as the color commentator on Thursdays.^[3] Dick Vermeil worked with Bryant Gumbel for the scheduled Saturday games; however, when Vermeil came down with a severe case of laryngitis during the Dallas Cowboys-Atlanta Falcons game on December 16, Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk, who were on location for NFL Total Access, filled in for the second half of that game.

The NFL Network's first regular-season game was Kansas City's 19-10 win at home over Denver on November 23, 2006. The game capped off a new "Thanksgiving Tripleheader" tradition. This was not pleasing news to many, as very few people have the NFL Network, since it is part of a digital cable and satellite TV package and was not available on Time Warner Cable and Cablevision. Thankfully, as is the case with ESPN's telecasts, the games were available in the participating teams' over-the-air markets.

[edit] News and notes

[edit] Major rule changes

• End zone celebrations became more restricted. Players cannot celebrate by using any type of prop, or do any act in which they are on the ground. Players may still spike, spin the ball, or dunk it over the goal posts. Dancing in the end zone is also permitted as long as it is not a prolonged or group celebration. The Lambeau Leap, though, is still legal. ^[2]

• Defenders were prohibited from hitting a passer in the knee or below unless they are blocked into him. This rule was enacted in response to the previous season's injuries to Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Brian Griese.

• Down-by-contact calls could now be reviewed by instant replay to determine if a player fumbled the ball before he was down, and who recovered it. Previously, these plays could not be reversed once officials blew the whistle.

• The "horse-collar tackle" rule enacted during the previous 2005 season was expanded. Players are now prohibited from tackling a ball carrier from the rear by tugging inside his jersey. Previously, it was only illegal if the tackler's hand got inside the player's shoulder pads.

• To reduce injuries, defensive players cannot line up directly over the long snapper during field goal and extra point attempts.

[edit] Officials' uniform makeover

The 2006 season marked the debut of new officiating uniforms which are supposed to be more comfortable for officials to wear in extreme weather over the old polyester uniforms. The uniforms were designed by Reebok using a proprietary material technology to keep officials both warm and dry during the winter months of the season. On the shirt, the position and number are removed from the front pocket and the lettering and numbers on the back side were black-on-white and are smaller print and the sleeve shows the uniform number. Officials also wore full-length black pants with white stripe during the winter months to stay warm, which was criticized by media and internet board posters. This was the first major design overhaul since 1979, when the position name was added to the shirt, but later abbreviated in 1982.

[edit] New NFL commissioner

On March 20, 2006, Paul Tagliabue announced his plans to retire as NFL commissioner. During an NFL meeting in Northbrook, Illinois, on August 8, 2006, league team owners selected Roger Goodell, the NFL's then-current chief operating officer, as the new commissioner. Tagliabue continued to serve as NFL commissioner until Goodell officially replaced him on Friday September 1.

Tagliabue became NFL commissioner on October 26, 1989. During his tenure, the league has added four new teams; saw four franchises move (including two franchises---the Rams and Raiders---from Los Angeles, the second-largest television market in the U.S.); the construction of seventeen new stadiums; began its own in-house television specialty cable network, the NFL Network; has greatly increased television rights fees with its broadcasters, including the addition of the Fox network; and has maintained labor peace with the players' union.

[edit] Return of "The Duke" football

For the first time since Super Bowl IV at the conclusion of the 1969 season, the official NFL game ball was known as "The Duke" in honor of Wellington Mara, whose family owns the New York Giants. Son John is the current CEO of the team. The NFL first used "The Duke" ball in honor of Mara in 1941 after then-Chicago Bears owner George Halas and then-Giants owner Tim Mara (Wellington's father) made a deal with Wilson Sporting Goods to become the league's official supplier of game balls, a relationship that continued into its' sixty-fifth year in 2006. ^[4]

"The Duke" ball was discontinued after the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, and the merged league began using a different standardized ball made by Wilson. The only other time that "The Duke" ball name was used was during the two Thanksgiving Classic games in 2004.

One side of the new 2006 "Duke" football featured the NFL shield logo in gold, the words "The Duke", and the NFL commissioner's signature. The obverse side has a small NFL logo above the needle bladder hole, the conference names between the hole, and the words "National Football League" in gold. As per the custom, specially branded balls were used for the first week of the 2006 season ("Opening Kickoff"), Thanksgiving Classic, conference championships, Super Bowl XLI and Pro Bowl games.

[edit] Unprecedented sell-outs

Through week 11 of the season, all NFL games had been sold out, and for the 24th time, all blackout restrictions had been lifted. ^[3] The streak was ended by the Jacksonville at Buffalo game in Week 12. ^[5]

[edit] Saints go home

The New Orleans Saints returned to their home at the Louisiana Superdome in Week Three. The Saints played home games during the 2005 NFL Season in San Antonio, TX, Baton Rouge, LA, and East Rutherford, NJ, due to the damage to the Superdome caused by Hurricane Katrina. The Saints finished the regular season 10-6, clinched a 1st Round Bye, and beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. Sadly though, the Chicago Bears vanquished the Saints in the NFC Championship, 39-14.

[edit] Game highlights on iTunes

Starting September 18, fans were able to download highlights of their teams' games through Apple Computer's iTunes Store online service. Each video costs US$1.99 each but fans have the chance of buying a "Follow Your Team season ticket" which brings every game of that team to the fan for $24.99. ^[3]

Also available will be NFL GameDay, the NFL Network's comprehensive Sunday night review which features post-game reactions and game analysis, all for $1.99 a show or $19.99 for the full season.

[edit] Death of Lamar Hunt

Lamar Hunt died in Dallas, Texas on December 13 from complications from prostate cancer at the age of 74. He is credited with challenging the NFL with the formation of the American Football League, which led to the subsequent merger of the two leagues.

[edit] Death of two Broncos

At 3 a.m. on January 1, 2007, Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed in Denver, within hours after the last regular season game against the San Francisco 49ers. Less than two months after, on February 24, 2007, Broncos running back Damien Nash collapsed and died after a charity basketball game at a high school. Both players died at the age of 24.

[edit] Milestones

The following teams and players set all-time NFL records during the regular season:

Record	Player/Team	Date/Opponent	Previous Record Holder[6]
Most Points, Career	Morten Andersen, Atlanta	December 16 vs. Dallas	Gary Anderson, 1982-2004 (2,434)
Most Field Goals, Career	Morten Andersen, Atlanta	December 24 vs. Carolina	Gary Anderson, 1982-2004 (538)
Most Passes Completed, Career	Brett Favre, Green Bay	December 17 vs. Detroit	Dan Marino, 1983-1999 (4,967)
Most Touchdowns, Season	LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego (31)	N/A	Shaun Alexander, Seattle, 2005 (28)
Most Rushing Touchdowns, Season	LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego (28)	N/A	Shaun Alexander, 2005 Priest Holmes, 2003 (27)
Most Rushing Attempts, Season	Larry Johnson, Kansas City (416)	N/A	Jamal Anderson, Atlanta, 1998 (410)
Most Kick Returns for a Touchdown, Season	Devin Hester, Chicago (5; 3 punts and 2 kickoffs)	N/A	Tied by 9 players (4)

[edit] Regular season statistical leaders

[edit] Team

Points scored	San Diego Chargers (492)
Total yards gained	New Orleans Saints (6,264)
Yards rushing	Atlanta Falcons (2,939)
Yards passing	New Orleans Saints (4,503)
Fewest points allowed	Baltimore Ravens (201)
Fewest total yards allowed	Baltimore Ravens (4,225)
Fewest rushing yards allowed	Minnesota Vikings (985)
Fewest passing yards allowed	Oakland Raiders (2,413)

[edit] Individual

Scoring	LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego (186 points)
Touchdowns	LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego (31 TDs)
Most field goals made	Robbie Gould, Chicago and Jeff Wilkins, St. Louis (32 FGs)
Rushing	LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego (1,815 yards)
Passer rating	Peyton Manning, Indianapolis (101.0 rating)
Passing touchdowns	Peyton Manning, Indianapolis (31 TDs)
Passing yards	Drew Brees, New Orleans (4,418 yards)
Pass receptions	Andre Johnson, Houston (103 catches)
Pass receiving yards	Chad Johnson, Cincinnati (1,369 yards)
Punt returns	Adam "Pacman" Jones, Tennessee (12.9 average yards)
Kickoff returns	Justin Miller, New York Jets (28.3 average yards)
Interceptions	Asante Samuel, New England and Champ Bailey, Denver (10)
Punting	Mat McBriar, Dallas (48.2 average yards)
Sacks	Shawne Merriman, San Diego (17)

[edit] Awards

Most Valuable Player	LaDainian Tomlinson, Running Back, San Diego Chargers
Coach of the Year	Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints
Offensive Player of the Year	LaDainian Tomlinson, Running Back, San Diego Chargers
Defensive Player of the Year	Jason Taylor, Defensive End, Miami Dolphins
Offensive Rookie of the Year	Vince Young, Quarterback, Tennessee Titans
Defensive Rookie of the Year	DeMeco Ryans, Linebacker, Houston Texans
NFL Comeback Player of the Year	Chad Pennington, Quarterback, New York Jets

---

All-Pro Team

Special teams
Kicker	Robbie Gould, Chicago
Punter	Brian Moorman, Buffalo
Kick returner	Devin Hester, Chicago

[edit] Officials

• 2006 NFL officiating crews

[edit] References

1. ^ Reardon, Dave (2006-03-10). Pro Bowl’s move to Saturday fine with HTA. Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Bettis says he'll 'call it like I see it' on NBC - NFL - MSNBC.com
3. ^ ^{a b c d} http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/9193472
4. ^ Michael Eisen - Story - 3.27 "The Duke" is Back - Giants.com
5. ^ "In depth: Frustration in Buffalo shows how NFL's television policies irking fan base", USA Today, 2006-11-26. Retrieved on 2006-11-27. 
6. ^ NFL.com - NFL Record and Fact Book. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.

• 2006 NFL Schedule (Last accessed April 6, 2006)
• NFL curtails end-zone celebrations from NFL.com, March 29, 2006 (Last accessed March 29, 2006)
• Process of game-time decisions will eliminate TV duds, create chaos by Michael Hiestand, USA Today, April 5, 2006 (Last accessed November 6, 2006)

2006 NFL season v • d • e
AFC	East	North	South	West	NFC	East	North	South	West
	Buffalo	Baltimore	Houston	Denver		Dallas	Chicago	Atlanta	Arizona
	Miami	Cincinnati	Indianapolis	Kansas City		NY Giants	Detroit	Carolina	St. Louis
	New England	Cleveland	Jacksonville	Oakland		Philadelphia	Green Bay	New Orleans	San Francisco
	NY Jets	Pittsburgh	Tennessee	San Diego		Washington	Minnesota	Tampa Bay	Seattle
2006 NFL Draft • NFL Playoffs • Pro Bowl • Super Bowl XLI

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